1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus such as an ink-jet printer, and ink-jet plotter, and to an ink tank mounted on the printing apparatus, and more particularly to a technique for controlling printing on the basis of information stored in a data storage attached to the ink tank.
2. Description of the Related Art
Color printers for ejecting inks of multiple colors from an ink head are currently used on a wide scale as output apparatus for computers. Dye inks or pigment inks can be cited as examples of the inks of multiple colors used in such color printers. As used herein, the term “dye ink” refers to an ink in which a dye is used as the ink colorant, and the term “pigment ink” refers to an ink in which a pigment is used as the ink colorant. Using a dye ink allows translucent colors to be formed on a print medium, whereas using a pigment ink allows distinct colors (solid colors) to be formed on a print medium. Another advantage of using a pigment ink is that characters or images can be printed with minimal bleeding.
Pigment and dye inks spread differently across a print medium. Specifically, a dye ink tends to spread or bleed across a print medium, whereas a pigment ink resists spreading or bleeding across a print medium. Consequently, different amounts of ink are required for a pigment ink drop and a dye ink drop in order to form dots of the same size on a print medium, and different drive waveforms must be employed for pigment ink and dye ink, respectively.
A conventional printer, however, has internal printer firmware with a single drive waveform. The resulting drawback is that, for example, a printer fabricated for a pigment ink cannot use a dye ink.